5 Salary Busting Strategies to Use Immediately
Working as a telehealth nurse offers you more convenience and a better quality of work/life balance than working in a traditional healthcare setting. It also offers some exceptional opportunities in a rapidly expanding and high-demand healthcare discipline.
One question that those new to working in telehealth often ask is, how much can you earn? The follow-up question is, how can you boost your earnings to maximize the financial reward on top of the lifestyle reward?
Telehealth Nurse Jobs Are Here to Stay
While 2020 saw telehealth job opportunities explode because of the need to provide safer healthcare options to patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, the growth in jobs is no flash in the pan. Globally, the telehealth market is expected to grow from around $39 billion in 2020 to more than $190 billion in 2025. Factors that are driving this growth include:
- Increasing population
- Aging population
- Increased prevalence of chronic conditions and diseases
- Remoteness of population
- Shortage of physicians
- Advancing technology
In the United States, according to the American Telehealth Association (ATA) 90% of healthcare executives they surveyed say that they have already begun developing or implementing a telemedicine program.
As the need for healthcare increases in the United States, and with telehealth strategies prominent in most healthcare providers, the demand for telehealth nurses is likely to continue to grow.
A Great Salary with No Commute
According to payscale.com, the average salary for a telehealth nurse is $31.30 per hour – equivalent to around $66,650 per year. You should remember that what you could earn depends upon the location in which you work and your experience. For example, a telehealth RN with more than 20 years of experience might expect to earn around $38 or more per hour.
These salary levels are good, but with careful planning and job design, it is possible to increase how much you earn as a telehealth nurse.
You Can Push Your Earnings Higher
While your experience will help you to earn more money in telehealth, this won’t help you to boost your earnings in the short term. Experience comes with length of service. What if you need to earn more money now? Here are five ways in which you can smash through the average earnings number.
1. Visit with More Patients
If you manage your time well and organize your day effectively, you can be more efficient with your patients. Most telehealth providers pay per patient visit, so the more you see the more you earn.
In fact, it’s important to understand how the companies you work with pay you. If your patients are few and far between, then your earnings will suffer if you are paid per consultation. Establish if you will be paid a base hourly rate, and seek to develop a steady stream of patients.
2. Sign Up with More Telehealth Providers
While checking how you are paid, ask if you are prohibited from working for other healthcare providers. Most companies will allow you to provide telehealth services through other providers. This will help you to build a steady stream of paying patient visits.
3. Widen Your Licensing
Just because you are at home does not mean to say that you are working at home. You can care for patients in almost any state, providing you have attained the correct licenses. This means that you can benefit from the higher salaries paid in states such as California and New York, even though you live and work in Missouri, for example.
4. Work Unsocial Hours
Just as in traditional health settings, providers find it more difficult to staff during unsocial hours – night shifts and weekends. Here’s the thing – you could service a night shift while working more ‘normal’ hours. If you live on the West Coast, you can work a night shift in New York and earn a higher hourly rate to compensate for your ‘night shift’.
5. Work Seasonal Rosters
Our final tip to boost your earnings in telehealth nursing is to work more shifts during seasonal demand, such as, flu season, for example. Not only will you earn more because you are visiting with more patients, but you may also be paid a higher hourly rate because of demand.
Are You Ready to Boost Your Earnings in Nursing?
What you can earn in telehealth nurse jobs really is up to you.
Whether you are considering transitioning from a traditional healthcare setting to a career in telehealth, already working as a telehealth nurse, or want to boost your income by picking up some telehealth nursing shifts to augment your current nurse’s salary, there is no time like the present to explore the opportunities open to you.
Start by exploring the telehealth nurse jobs available on telehealthgigs.com (at the time of writing, there are more than 3,500 nurse openings, and more than 16,000 telehealth jobs advertised).
